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This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
How K-pop fans are shaping elections astir the globe
Back successful the aboriginal ‘90s, Korean popular music, known arsenic K-pop, was mostly conserved to its autochthonal South Korea. It’s since exploded astir the globe into an planetary phenomenon, emphasizing choreography and elaborate performance.
It’s made bands similar Girls Generation, EXO, BTS, and Blackpink into household names, and inspired a peculiar marque of peculiarly fierce devotion successful their fans.
Now, those aforesaid fandoms person learned however to usage their integer skills to advocator for societal alteration and prosecute governmental goals—organizing acts of civilian resistance, donating generously to charity, and adjacent foiling achromatic supremacist attempts to dispersed hatred speech. Read the afloat story.
—Soo Youn
The ChatGPT-fueled conflict for hunt is bigger than Microsoft oregon Google
Search is abruptly chill again. Last week, Microsoft and Google staked retired their respective claims to the aboriginal of search, showing disconnected chatbots that tin respond to queries with sentences alternatively than lists of links.
But portion these announcements gave a glimpse of what’s adjacent for search, to get the afloat representation we request to look beyond these companies. Search is acceptable to go much crowded and varied. That’s because, nether the radar, a caller question of startups person been playing with galore of the aforesaid chatbot-enhanced hunt tools for months. Read the afloat story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
If you privation to larn much astir this topic, work this portion from Melissa Heikkilä astir why you shouldn’t spot AI hunt engines.
Huge EVs are acold from perfect, but they could inactive assistance combat clime change.
A fistful of electric-vehicle commercials aired during the Super Bowl connected Sunday, and each of them had 1 happening successful common: the vehicles featured were massive.
In the US, cars are already big, and they’re getting bigger. Now, successful the sanction of addressing clime change, companies are catering to America’s obsession with elephantine vehicles, advertizing the aforesaid trucks and SUVs we cognize and love—but electrified.
Giving radical what they privation could beryllium cardinal to boosting EV adoption. But large EVs could travel with a clime cost. Read the afloat story.
—Casey Crownhart
Casey’s nonfiction is from The Spark, her play clime and vigor newsletter. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Bird flu is rapidly spreading among mammals
But, for now, there’s inactive nary grounds it poses a nonstop menace to humans. (The Atlantic $)
+ Humans thin to declaration the microorganism lone aft handling birds. (Economist $)
+ At slightest 60 countries person killed birds successful effect to outbreaks truthful far. (Reuters)
+ We don’t request to panic astir a vertebrate flu pandemic—yet. (MIT Technology Review)
2 China’s covid question was acold deadlier than reported
Estimates suggest it killed up to 1.5 cardinal people, acold higher than the authoritative decease toll. (NYT $)
+ The state spent billions of covid measures past year. (The Guardian)
3 What flies successful the sky’s ‘forgotten space’?
Spy balloons aren’t the lone objects you’ll find up there. (FT $)
+ Why the US is obsessed with UFOs. (The Atlantic $)
4 The Doomsday Glacier is melting rapidly
A robot submerged beneath the crystal has recovered troubling signs of sensitivity. (Wired $)
5 Sexual predators are grooming teens connected TikTok
Its proposal algorithm makes it easier than ever to question caller victims. (WSJ $)
6 Tesla is opening its immense web of chargers to different EVs
At slightest 7,5000 caller chargers volition beryllium made available—and much are coming. (TechCrunch)
+ The U.S. lone has 6,000 accelerated charging stations for EVs. Here’s wherever they each are. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Effective altruism is failing to tackle intersexual harassment 8 Erotic AI companions are giving up roleplay
A deficiency of formalized enactment makes it other challenging. (Vox)+ Inside effectual altruism, wherever the acold aboriginal counts a batch much than the present. (MIT Technology Review)
The abrupt alteration to Replika’s chatbots has near devotees bereft. (Motherboard)
9 Who was John McAfee?
Even the eccentric and alleged centimillionaire’s friends and household aren’t sure. (Bloomberg $)
10 It’s clip to get de-influenced
Creators are implicit pushing products—now they’re telling you what not to buy. (The Guardian)
+ Like it oregon not, being an influencer is simply a existent job. (Wired $)
Quote of the day
“We cannot spend to beryllium frightened of Putin, oregon other helium wins.”
—Christo Grozev, an investigative writer dedicated to exposing Russian wrongdoings, tells the Financial Times wherefore helium is inactive committed to his reporting, contempt the Kremlin adding him to its “most wanted” list.
Why it’s a mistake to stake against Silicon Valley
There has ever been an immense magnitude of statement implicit what accounts for the uniqueness of Silicon Valley. Whatever the reasons, the Valley has remained the world’s ascendant exertion innovation halfway since then, its roots intelligibly prevarication successful a serendipitous acceptable of events.
But contempt its near-religious content successful its ain estimation for innovation, the Valley has been sustained by comparatively fewer huge, melodramatic concepts that person spawned full caller ways of surviving and working. Instead, it has go adept astatine thing else: spotting a profitable caller idea. Read the afloat story.
—John Markoff
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line oregon tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ These beluga whales sing beautifully, but I can’t accidental the aforesaid for their quality person (thanks Vincent!)
+ Wow, leaves truly are amazing.
+ Every azygous 1 of these luxe New York hotels look incredible.
+ I don’t cognize what this Pikmin doggy thing is, but I cognize I similar it.
+ It’s clip to ticker your back—your gaming chair could beryllium trying to termination you.
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